NIGHTLINE Tonight: The Big Picture (Dallas Paper to Break BIG Story on Catholic Scandal!)

ABCNEWS | June 11, 2002 | Leroy Sievers

[Timesink]

Subject: NIGHTLINE: The Big Picture

TONIGHT'S SUBJECT: For months now, we've been reporting on the scandal rocking the Catholic Church. But for the most part, we talk about one case here, another there. But just how widespread is the problem? Tonight we'll have the results of an investigation done by our colleagues at the Dallas Morning News. The numbers are actually pretty shocking.

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I'm sitting here, having a little trouble getting started. We have reported on this scandal several times so far. For the most part, the stories are fairly similar, the anguish of the victims, and their anger, and the response by the Church. But it is sort of like profiling each tree, one at a time, and not looking at the forest, to use an old metaphor. Just how widespread is this problem? If it were just one person here, and maybe another there, it might be easier to understand. But there has always been a feeling that this is a systemic problem, that underlying the individual stories that have come into the public eye, and those that have not, is some sort of widespread problem.

Some say the issue is celibacy. Others that the priesthood attracts those disposed towards children. Still others argue that the issue is homosexuality in the priesthood. And there are many other explanations. And they may all be partly true, and party false. But tonight we will address just how widespread this problem is. This week, the bishops are meeting in Dallas to debate a proposed policy to deal with priests who are accused of, or proven to be guilty of molestation. Many of the victims say the policy doesn't go far enough, that it is too lenient. But with the bishops and others beginning to arrive in Dallas today, our friends at the Dallas Morning News came to us with the results of an investigation they conducted. Their story will be in the paper tomorrow, and on their Web site tonight. They tried to track down every credible allegation. And the numbers they found are staggering.

Roughly two-thirds of the bishops have either been accused themselves, actually a relatively small number, or more commonly, are accused of covering up the actions of one of their priests. We'll be reporting on the details of what the Morning News found tonight, but clearly the numbers indicate that the problem is more than just the crimes of isolated individuals. So we'll have a report from ABC News correspondent Bill Blakemore from Dallas on the Morning News investigation, and a preview of what will happen later in the week. Ted will interview the bishop who headed the committee that wrote the proposed policy. But I think tonight's broadcast will make it clear that this is much more than a couple of isolated cases being given too much publicity. Something has gone terribly wrong.

Tuesday, June 11, 2002

Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
Nightline Offices
Washington, D.C.

[RobbyS]

Re. #15. The logic of the Sexual Revolution recognizes no sexual boundaries. No one knows yet how pervasive "child abuse" is in a society that is mad on the subject of sex. Consider that the Boy Scouts have been hounded because they have afollowed a policy that the press is urging on the Church.

[marshmallow]

There may well be a story here, but the feigned self-righteous indignation of the "foot-in-the-door" journalists will keep me from watching this one. I'll check back in the morning.

If there was a really big scoop here, it would be on the tube earlier on 20/20 or Primetime or whatever it's called. Burying this on the graveyard shift in competition with Leno and Letterman doesn't convince me that anything big is about to break.

[Illbay]

When will the nuns speak out...

I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't some problems brewing from that quarter as well. A good friend of ours attended Catholic school in Monterey, Mexico, which was run by an order of nuns. Most were from the U.S.

One of her teachers taught really "radical" politics, encouraged the girls in her charge to "pray to the goddess as well as God," and was reputed to be "making time" with some of the older girls in her class.

This friend is virulently anti-Catholic, unfortunately, because of the things she both witnessed and experienced in that school.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

It's probably a wide variety of motivations, varying from case to case. Some, no doubt, are faithless sodomites just interested in wealth, comfort, power, and privelege. Others are of the more quasi-Marxist, neo-gnostic ideological revolutionaries, as you suggest. There may be some who actually believe that homosexual sodomy is equivalent to heterosexual matrimony and that it can be reconciled with the ideals of a loving and forgiving Christ, as bizarre as that may sound. Others are probably anti-Catholic in orientation or members of secret societies, etc. Maybe some are actually diabolically obsessed or possessed.

[curmudgeonII]

My guess is that this type of reporting will continue until the hierarchy of the Catholic Church finally decides not only to do something about the past transgressions, but to take effective steps to prevent future occurrences. [And they're no place close to either yet.]

[SoothingDave]

You are right that the motives vary. Perhaps the most disturbing is those who simply do not see any evil in how they conduct their lives, lives of homosexual promiscuity.

SD

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

And then there is the emotionally disturbed, oppositional defiant, homosexual sociopath who is working out anger and repressed hostility at heterosexuals and the Church, as a symbol of anti-gay repression. They are getting even.

[ex-snook]

Good points but will there be a 'next' or is just aimed at outing Catholics? (rightfully - let all the heads roll - America needs a morality fix)
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Coverup

Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life

The abortion industry is in trouble, and it's time to capitalize on that trouble.

In every state, sexual activity with underage children is illegal. Moreover, if a health care worker suspects that a minor is being sexually abused, or is the victim of statutory rape, that worker is required by law to report the information to the authorities designated by the law. (Remember, statutory rape does not mean an "attack." It refers to the age of the parties.)

For many months, my friends and colleagues at Life Dynamics in Denton, Texas have been gathering more information about what an abortion clinic is likely to do if an underage girl who has been impregnated by an adult asks for an abortion. The fact that the abortion or birth control that the clinic sells is "legal" does not take away the clinic workers' responsibility to report. The requirement under the law, furthermore, for the health care worker is simply to report, not to investigate. In other words, the very fact that an underage girl is pregnant indicates that there may have been criminal activity or abuse. The health care worker does not have to investigate whether there was or not, but simply report that there might be.

What Life Dynamics did is described in their own words on their website, www.childpredators.com: "Life Dynamics conducted a covert investigation in which we called over 800 Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation facilities across the country. Our caller portrayed a 13-year-old girl who was pregnant by her 22-year-old boyfriend. Her story was that she wanted an abortion because she and her boyfriend did not want her parents to find out about the sexual relationship. In every call the ages of the girl and her boyfriend were made perfectly clear. It was also unmistakable that the motivation for the abortion was to conceal this illicit sexual activity from the girl's parents and the authorities. The results were appalling. Even though many of these clinic workers openly acknowledged to our caller that this situation was illegal and that they were required to report it to the state, the overwhelming majority readily agreed to conceal this illegal sexual activity. Some employees of these organizations even coached our caller on how to avoid detection, how to circumvent parental involvement laws and what to say or not say when she came to the clinic."

So what should be done next?

First of all, spread the word. People, especially those who are parents, have a right to know about the risks their children and grandchildren face in legal abortion clinics.

Secondly, legislation can be introduced to stop these clinics and their supporting organizations from receiving state and federal funding. After all, recipients of these funds are required to use the money only in accordance with all state and federal laws.

Thirdly, massive litigation should be launched against the abortion industry for engaging in this illegal activity.

Along with changing laws and hearts, we simply need to put abortionists out of business.

Priests for Life
PO Box 141172
Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. 888-PFL-3448, (718) 980-4400
Fax 718-980-6515
Email mail@priestsforlife.org

Subscribe to Fr. Frank's bi-weekly prolife column (free): subscribe@priestsforlife.org 

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Unfortunately, since the Catholic church doesn't care much for the Bible's exclusive authority, this is not going to happen in all likelyhood.

Still flaunting your ignorance, I see. The Catholic Church has believed in Scripture since Pope St. Innocent I closed the canon of the Bible in 405 AD. Over 11 centuries before a bunch of malcontents started discarding large pieces of it and editing what was left to their liking to suit their doctrine. By the way, tell us all where one can find "Scripture alone" in Scripture?

[eastsider]

Don't be surprised if you here the name Avery Dulles!

Please, say it ain't so. : (

[foreshadowed at waco]

My own take on this homosexual scandal within the Catholic Church is fairly simple...most of these priests seem to be in their late 60's and 70's...that would mean that they were probably homosexual males born into Catholic families in the 1940's and 1950's who were sent into the priesthood by their families to avoid the scandal of being homosexual...not uncommon at all...any boy not showing an interest in females would have been considered odd...maybe the 'outing' of these homosexually active priests will serve notice on the world that sending someone into the religious life with the hope that they will be 'saved' if kept from the world is a raging error...they just turned on peoples' kids...shame and lust when combined together create a really bad scene...so much suffering...but the Church will endure and be better for it.

[Campion]

the Bible's exclusive authority on TEACHINGS AND DOCTRINE

Which is a doctrine not taught in the Bible, and therefore self-contradictory.

In fact, the Bible you claim has "exclusive authority" says that the "church of the living God" is "the pillar and ground of the truth".

[Campion]

One of her teachers taught really "radical" politics, encouraged the girls in her charge to "pray to the goddess as well as God," and was reputed to be "making time" with some of the older girls in her class.

This friend is virulently anti-Catholic

Sounds like the teacher accomplished what she set out to do.

[AdA$tra]

Consider that the Boy Scouts have been hounded because they have afollowed a policy that the press is urging on the Church.

The irony is that when I was in Jr. High and wore my scout uniform to school I was called a fag. Now as a scout leader, I put my uniform on and I am a racist, bigoted, homophobe.

[cookcounty]

"So, it is as bad if a bishop or priest is having an affiar with a woman?"

Child abuse is MUCH worse, but this situation also should be taken more seriously

A guy I knew from college went into the (protestant) ministry and managed to get involved in an adulterous relationship with a parishioner. When found out, he pleaded that God had called him into the ministry. The regional council said "OK, but first...."

They made him quit, take a job in private industry, meet weekly with an "acountability group" to monitor his progress. After 10 (yes TEN) years, they again re-authorized him to serve as a senior pastor, but only on the condition that A) every adult in the new congregation be informed, in general terms, of his past, and B) continued weekly meeting with his accountability group. This from a single case of sexual contact with a parishoner well above the age of consent.

It would be great if the bishops proved to be half as serious.

[ex-snook]

".most of these priests seem to be in their late 60's and 70's..."

But it seems that they 'came of age' during the era of sexual revolution and drug culture. These things were widely accepted in society and glorified by the entertainment industry.

'Homosexuality' is not even considered abnormal by the Medical Profession. Government wants to grand extra rights. Sadly the Church did not have the wisdom of the boy scouts (and you see what is happening to them today).

During this era, sin was dumbed-down to the level of the sinner. Sin was not in and is still not. Today we are 'pastoral' and 'can't offend'. The Bishops need to order the modern equivalent of sack cloth and ashes for themselves to restore confidence.

[RobbyS]

The church will emerge from this purged and stronger than ever. And that is good for everyone who loves liberty. Thank you. very much.

[sawsalimb]

That's an angle that I hadn't thought of. I'm not Catholic,and for that matter,not particularly religious,so I'm not in a position to talk inteligently about the current scandal. Thanks for bringing that up-it strikes me a good point.

[DeweyCA]

So, it is as bad if a bishop or priest is having an affiar with a woman?

No, but it is just as bad if a priest or nun was molesting a little girl. A woman at least can give informed consent. Taking advantage of under-aged kids is worse. People that do that ought to rot in prison for the rest of their lives, and experience from other inmates what they inflicted on the kids.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

All of this does have more than a little to do with the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s as well as the new and aggressive homosexual subculture.